1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus which forms an image by using printing liquid such as ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a call for reduced usage of various volatile organic compounds (VOC: Volatile Organic Compound) discharged from ink jet type copy machines or electrophotographic copy machines/printers/complex machines used in offices in order to reduce the environmental load.
Further, in order to define the achievement standard in meeting such requirements, there are cases in which public third-party organizations or a companies manufacturing such products have set specific standard (Eco Label Certification Standard) for regulating TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds).
On the other hand, printing liquid (ink or treatment liquid and the like for accelerating flocculation of a colorant in ink) used in an ink jet recording apparatus includes various VOC components such as a water-soluble organic solvent and the like. Therefore, from now on, not only will it become important to suppress the amount of VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus, but also to meet the above-mentioned standard.
Further, higher speed and higher image quality are required of the ink jet recording apparatus. In order to realize higher speed, improvement in printing speed, that is, increase in the ejection amount of printing liquid ejected from the recording head per unit of time is required. Moreover, in order to realize higher image quality, it is necessary to further reduce the size of a liquid droplet of the printing liquid ejected from the recording head.
Therefore, it is inevitable that the amount of VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus per unit of time increases along with faster speed and higher image quality, which contradicts the above trend of suppressing VOC generation.
On the other hand, regarding the VOCs generated from the ink jet recording apparatus, since the above-mentioned need for reducing VOCs has become marked only in recent years, not much concrete investigation has been conducted as yet.
As an example, since there is a case where ink used in the ink jet recording apparatus includes a component having volatile odor, an ink jet recording apparatus (refer to JP-A-2003-112412) including a means for deodorizing or reducing this volatile odor has been proposed.
However, the above-mentioned ink jet recording apparatus uses an activated carbon or an aromatic substance in order to deodorize or reduce the volatile odor. Therefore, in a case where activated carbon is used, once the VOCs that have volatilized from the printing liquid have been adsorbed to the activated carbon to some degree, the adsorption capacity of the activated carbon becomes saturated, so that the outflow of VOCs from the apparatus cannot be suppressed. In a case where the adsorption capacity diminishes, exchange of the activated carbon is required. Furthermore, in a case where the activated carbon is left to stand under an environment of high temperature, there is a possibility that the VOC component adsorbed once may be discharged again. In a case where an aromatic substance is used, this merely deceives the sense of smell, and the VOC component itself is not removed from the room in which the ink jet recording apparatus is set.